Coupling



April 27 1926. 1,582,206

H. c. ZIMMERMAN GOUPLING Filed Sept. 11, 1924 gmwnto wwf/2M l Patented Apr. 27, 1926.

U Ni ED. ST Tg5 y ttigen. PATENT QFFQE,

Application tiled September 11, 1924.` Serial No. 737,177.

(GIQBLNHED` UNDER THE AG1 0F MARCH 3518,83; 2.2, 5T-11, L- 625-) To al whom. t may 4@o1/mera Beit known that I, HARRY C. ZIMMER- MAN, a citizen ot the United Stateaandja resident ot Washington, District of Columr bia,i,hayeinvented an Improvement in Couplings, ot which the following is a specificaion.

The invention described herein may be used by the Government, or any of its otlicers or employees in prosecution of work tor the Government, or by any other person in the United States, without payment to me ot any royalty thereon, in accordance with the act of March 3, 1883.

This invention relates primarily to means for connecting a gun to the reciprocating element ot a recoil mechanism.

In artillery of small caliber ot the type especially adapted to accompany infantry troops on the advance or for use in mountainous regions, the guns are portable structures capable of rapid dismantling and assembly and divisible into convenient individual loads.

The object ot the present invention is to provide a simple and efiicient device tor detachably and rapidly connecting a gun barrel to the reciprocating element of the re` coil mechanism, the gun when lowered to its sleigh or to the cradle being in position to be locked in place without the necessity ot aligning or manipulating the connecting elements.

The invention consists in mounting a retaining ring on the reciprocating element and forming a slot in said ring to receive the lug on the gun, the lug being lowered over and securely held by a locking bolt carried by the ring and extending across its slot.

To these and other ends, my invention consists in the construction, arrangement, and combination of elements, described hereinafter and pointed out in the claim forming a part ot this specification.

A practical embodiment ot my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation ot a gun in battery, the cradle broken away at its rear end to show the gun and recoil mechanism connection; y y y y I I Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the rear end et the Igun in battery;

Fig. 4 is a detailedjside elevation ot the retaining ring.; y

Fig.I 5 is an'end view of .the same;

Fig. 6 is av detailed ,view ot the locking bolt, and

Fig. 7is asectional view taken on the line 7-7 ot Fig. 6.

Referring to the drawings by numerals ot reference:

According to the invention, the cradle 11 is provided with a top plate 12, having suitable guide-ways for reciprocally mounting a sleigh 13 which carries the gun 14.

lVithin the cradle is a recoil cylinder 15 adapted to be guided in reciprocation by a stationary piston rod 16 secured to the front cradle cover 17 and by an annular plate 18 which forms a bearing against which a spring 19 is compressed by a recoil cylinder head ring, not shown. The piston rod is provided at its rear end with a throttling valve 20 and a regulator 21 and is further adapted to receive a buer rod 22 carried by the cylinder.

The rear end of the cylinder is reduced and threaded tor the reception ot a retaining ring 28, forwardly flanged as at 24, the flange retaining a drain plug 25. The upper portion of the ring is formed with a transverse slot 26 for the reception ot a lug 27 on the gun 14, the lug having a central longitudinal key hole slot 28 adapted to receive a bolt 29 mounted in a passage intersecting the transverse slot 26 and held against removal by a washer 30.

The port-ion of the bolt 29 which is disposed in the slot 26 is oblong in shape as indicated at 31 so that when the bolt is in unlocked position its narrow portion 81 will be parallel to and receivable through the restricted opening of the key hole slot 28 whence it may be turned in the circular portion of the key hole slot to dispose its widest surface at right angles to the restricted opening thereof (as shown in Fig. 2) to positively prevent disengagement of the lug 27.

The handle portion oi the bolt 29 is provided with a plunger 32 engageable in recesses 38 to hold the bolt in its locked or released position. y

lAn open 'annular' rein'toilcingplate 34 at the rearv'end of the cradle is designed to Iattord sufficient Vcle'aizniice Aor the retaining sembled or dismantled under conditions of darkness it is apparent that manipulation ofthe gun to align its connecting elements would be a diiiicult procedure, v

lVhile in the foregoing` there has been illustrated and described such 'combination and arrangement of elements as constitute the preferred embodiment of my invention,

it is nevertheless desired to emphasize the fact that interpretation of the invention should only be conclusive when made in the light of the subjoined claim.

I claim:

The combination with a reciprocatingv member of a retaining ring on one end there- Y of, said ringformed with a transverse slot and an intersecting passage, a bolt in said passage having a narrow portion disposed n the transverses-lot, means for holding the bolt in locked or unlocked position, and a lug having a key hole slot centrally in its underface for receiving the narrow portion of the bolt.

HARRY C. ZIMMERMAN. 

